It sounds terrible, I know, but sight-seeing is never a priority for me when I travel.

What interests me more is poking around in markets and supermarkets, noshing on street food and dining in restaurants. Food, I have found, connects me to the people in the countries I visit. These encounters give me something more interesting to remember than photos and selfies in front of "important sights".

As I write this, my sister and I are smiling after a terrific dinner in a Ginza sushi bar, where we made friends with a cosmopolitan Japanese couple sitting next to us. They made a great meal perfect.

One time in Barcelona, my friend and I gave staff at the hotel we were staying at a list of restaurants we wanted to go to. Their enthusiasm and spot-on recommendations were a highlight of the trip, right up there with dinner at elBulli before it closed.

In Rome, I had a chat with the owner of Checchino dal 1887, an offal restaurant where I had gone to for the intestines of very young milk-fed lamb. He told me about the history of the area, where slaughterhouses used to be located. Staff would be paid partly in offal and they would take it to nearby restaurants to be cooked.

Could a tour tell me any of this? Could I read about it in a guide book? Yes.

But I hear this from the people who know their neighbourhoods, history and culture best. Then I eat that history and culture, and it is invariably delicious.

Here, I share my eating adventures in Australia, Japan, Scotland and more.

Travel safe and eat very, very well.

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Tan Hsueh Yun

Life editor